“The big thing it allows me to do is that it makes me [a manufacturer] under the law—everything that manufacturers are allowed to do,” he told Ars. “I can sell some of the pieces that we've been making. I can do firearms transactions and transport.”

Wilson and his colleagues have been making prototypes of guns for months now. Most recently, the group demonstrated an AR-15 semi-automatic, which is allowed under American law without a license. The legal difference now is that Wilson can sell and distribute the guns he makes.

Earlier this month Wilson told Ars that he had submitted the application to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (a division of the Department of Justice) back in October 2012. The process can take as little as 60 days, but in this case it took around six months.

Currently, Wilson said he will not actually begin manufacturing and selling guns until he receives an “add-on” to his FFL, known as a Class 2 Special Occupational Taxpayer (SOT), as licensed under federal law (PDF). This would allow him to manufacture and deal a broader range of firearms under the National Firearms Act. The Class 2 SOT would grant Wilson the ability to manufacture, for example, a fully-automatic rifle. Wilson applied for the SOT on Saturday and expects to receive approval within a few weeks.

As a gun dealer, Wilson will also be required to keep records on all the guns he makes and sells. The group already takes in thousands of dollars monthly in donations. But with the SOT, Wilson said the group can begin selling guns to offset some of the group’s costs for printers and materials.

“In a way it's like we're just beginning—I'm not going to begin until we have that SOT,” he said. “[We’re going to] sell some of the stuff we've already made. We’ll probably make some stuff to sell and that will be a better way of covering the prototyping.”

Right now, it nothing more than a dubious advantage to sell guns in the US. I highly doubt that 3D printed guns are going to have any advantage over other methods of manufacture. He could sell the 3D plans for printing them (providing he has permission to sell that copyright), but even then the 3rd party 3D printer would need a licence to sell the printed gun on again.

Bit of much ado about nothing at this point i think ? Not that it won't potentially get very interesting very soon.

I'm impressed that 3D printed guns can handle the stresses involved -- I remember reading that an early model blew up after firing 10 rounds and thought no more of it, but the story linked in the article gives 600-1000 rounds as the lower limit for one of these semiautomatics. (Edit: Aurispector has an excellent point about what constitutes a "gun" here -- makes a lot more sense how a 3D printed gun could survive that many rounds if the barrel is still steel. See comment below.)

As long as these guys abide by the terms of their licenses, I'm not too worried about proliferation in the short term. There are already enough guns floating around, legal and illegal, that anyone who wants one should be able to get one. In the longer term I'd be concerned about the potential for anyone to sidestep the laws and regulations to print their own firearms if we ever passed some sort of meaningful gun control in the US.

Of course, that's kind of the point, isn't it? In the other article, Wilson paints himself as a "crypto-anarchist," so I imagine that decentralization is one of his goals -- he'd like people to be able to print their own guns in case they need to rise up against a tyrannical police state.

Personally, if it gets to the "give me liberty or give me death" stage again, my money is on the people with the tanks, no matter how many plastic guns are floating around out there.

It bears repeating that what he is manufacturing is the lower receiver, considered to be the "gun" by the BATFE but not in any way capable of actually firing on it's own. You can not manufacture a barrel or bolt with these materials. Those components still require special steel and equipment - that's the "hard part" as it were.

@ basekid - ask the people fighting assad in syria if they think they have "enough guns already". Blaming the guns for violence is like blaming forks for obesity, but only if obesity were illegal.

I've said it in other forums: people suck, guns allow them to suck more efficiently. No, guns don't cause violence, but they make it exponentially easier to perform violence.

The idea of home-printing guns doesn't much concern me now, at this stage of the maker-box revolution. Finding a handgun or rifle at a gun show or store is still going to be many times cheaper than buying and setting up a 3D printer. And that doesn't even account for the final assembly that someone has to do. No, I'm more interested/worried about 10-15 years from now, when these become commonplace and inexpensive, an able to handle more materials than just plastic.

I've said it in other forums: people suck, guns allow them to suck more efficiently. No, guns don't cause violence, but they make it exponentially easier to perform violence.

The idea of home-printing guns doesn't much concern me now, at this stage of the maker-box revolution. Finding a handgun or rifle at a gun show or store is still going to be many times cheaper than buying and setting up a 3D printer. And that doesn't even account for the final assembly that someone has to do. No, I'm more interested/worried about 10-15 years from now, when these become commonplace and inexpensive, an able to handle more materials than just plastic.

Indeed. I imagine a warehouse full of "printers" is going to be at least a grade less secure than a warehouse full of firearms.

Whilst the idea of instant delivery appeals to me, this does make me worry about what is going to happen when this gets into the wrong hands.

This does not concern me at all. He found a cheap/easy way to make firearms components. And these components, at least at first, will have no quality advantages over traditional components.

This really shouldn't have been a new article. There are thousands of FFL dealers throughout the country, and a lot of them have the Class II SOT that allows them to sell Title II weapons. In fact, I bought a suppressor from the dealer in my hometown just a couple months ago. This is non-newsworthy. Yes, the idea that he's making designs easily accessible to others with the right equipment might be considered newsworthy, but not simply making them.

How does this process compare to "classic" gun-making? Can they make 10x as many guns in a similar period of time?

I really don't like the idea of having federal approval to print guns.... It's not like there aren't enough guns already.

The use of printing technology is primariliy prototyping in its current form. The printing medium needs to be enhanced for durability to withstand any heavy use. We're not there yet, so you need not be concerned with being able to make cheap weapons. We already can with current manufacturing process.

Are these guys trying to raise awareness by showing how easy it is for someone to become an arms dealer and producer with modern technology and current laws? Or do they actually think this is a good idea?

This takes a lot of the sensationalism out of the story, actually. People making gun parts with a 3D printer is cool and all, but we already have people making receivers our of plastic for a while, and plenty of garage gunsmiths milling entire firearms on desktop CNC machines. Homemade guns aren't new, and aren't particularly scary, but the 3D printed gun news of the last year or so has been couched on the idea that making a gun at home is a frightening new frontier.

No licenses! No oversight! No Big Brother demanding paperwork! Guns will be everywhere!!!!1 But now the guy who is positioning himself as the main activist for gun manufacturing freedom has gone out to get multiple licenses and will be doing all the requisite BATFe paperwork. On the one hand, it changes nothing. On the other hand, he just joined about 61,000 other FFL holders, making him a lot less special.

the group demonstrated an AR-15 semi-automatic—which are allowed under American law without a license

In my home state, you must be licensed to purchase or own any firearm.

Legal for them to sell. What you are required to do to purchase is a separate issue.

Negative. Selling a gun in California or many New England states requires that the manufacturer jump through even more hoops than the buyer. Pretty much all stock AR-15s are illegal to sell in CA; they require significant modifications to ergonomics and function to even be allowed in.

This takes a lot of the sensationalism out of the story, actually. People making gun parts with a 3D printer is cool and all, but we already have people making receivers our of plastic for a while, and plenty of garage gunsmiths milling entire firearms on desktop CNC machines. Homemade guns aren't new, and aren't particularly scary, but the 3D printed gun news of the last year or so has been couched on the idea that making a gun at home is a frightening new frontier.

No licenses! No oversight! No Big Brother demanding paperwork! Guns will be everywhere!!!!1 But now the guy who is positioning himself as the main activist for gun manufacturing freedom has gone out to get multiple licenses and will be doing all the requisite BATFe paperwork.

He's already said he's doing this so he can lay the groundwork publicly and can't be busted for not adhering to protocol. The purpose of selling stuff now is to fund the streamlining of the process so that he can then open it up to everyone to do on their own, without any pesky oversight or licensing. The idea is to get around any future laws that (if the past is any indication) will only restrict the buying and selling of banned weapons. If you make it yourself, well, the laws don't tend to apply to possession.

It sounds to me like he's following the legal processes in place and can't do anything now that any other firearms manufacturer can do. So he may be a nutbar, but I don't think he's an especially dangerous nutbar.

Does it have ramifications for the future? A potential cottage industry of homemeade firearms? Perhaps. But as others have pointed out, you still need steel parts to make a functioning firearm. It'll be a while before the technology to "print" those in your home is available and even longer before it's affordable.

How does this process compare to "classic" gun-making? Can they make 10x as many guns in a similar period of time?

No. Traditionally, the big costs and long lead time for e.g. a metal AR-15 lower receiver is in building the dies for casting parts. cutting metal casting tools is time consuming, and the press for casting aluminum is expensive. But once the tools are built and the casting press is up and running, you can shoot parts and pop them out of the die at rates of many per minute.

with "3D printing," there's no need to tool anything up, but the actual process of fabricating the part is very slow. It's an evolution of SLA/SLS that has been used in industry for a long time for prototyping purposes; but a rough guess would be that it might take 8-12 hours to 3D print one AR lower.

And never mind the fact that this guy is only printing the lower receiver. It's not the most highly-stressed part in an AR-15 (not to say it isn't stressed, mind.) The upper receiver, barrel, bolt, bolt carrier, and stressed parts of the trigger group all have to be metal. There's still no ceramic "Glock 7" yet

edited to add: The reason this all centers around the lower receiver is because on an AR-platform rifle, the lower receiver is the part that must carry the serial number and for licensing purposes is the firearm.

Quote:

I really don't like the idea of having federal approval to print guns.... It's not like there aren't enough guns already.

there are 300 million out there already in this country. Ship has sailed, horse has left, etc.

Always follow the money. The most interesting thing about this to me is the potential for disruption in what is now a unified front of pro-gun momentum.

The NRA essentially does the bidding of gun manufacturers. They're for protecting rights as far as those rights intersect with profits for those manufacturers. What happens when private citizens are allowed to bypass manufacturers and print their own weapons? I'm guessing that the vague generalities surrounding the "right to bear arms" will become a thing of the past, and the group will find restrictions on these printed weapons that they can live with -- in the spirit of cooperation with opponents, of course, and not because deep pockets are being threatened.

The guy can't compose a sensible sentence but he is allowed to manufacture ballistic weapons.

Your country is ruined.

Did you check the previous Ars article? He's an avowed anarchist. Which is really nothing but the teensiest further step right from ayn rand libertarianism.

And boasting about how he doesn't go to class for Law School, and just passes his exams. Great. Anarchist lawyers that love cheating the system. I'm sure he won't contribute to anything like patent trolling or other positively lovely schemes, IF he doesn't go full on militia.

Did you check the previous Ars article? He's an avowed anarchist. Which is really nothing but the teensiest further step right from ayn rand libertarianism.

And boasting about how he doesn't go to class for Law School, and just passes his exams. Great. Anarchist lawyers that love cheating the system. I'm sure he won't contribute to anything like patent trolling or other positively lovely schemes, IF he doesn't go full on militia.

Concurred, this country is ruined.

Yes, I have followed the previous articles fairly closely and have found them entirely terrifying.

Did you check the previous Ars article? He's an avowed anarchist. Which is really nothing but the teensiest further step right from ayn rand libertarianism.

And boasting about how he doesn't go to class for Law School, and just passes his exams. Great. Anarchist lawyers that love cheating the system. I'm sure he won't contribute to anything like patent trolling or other positively lovely schemes, IF he doesn't go full on militia.

Concurred, this country is ruined.

Yes, I have followed the previous articles fairly closely and have found them entirely terrifying.

all you two are really saying is "somebody is doing something I don't approve of so I have to squawk about what terrible people they are."

The guy can't compose a sensible sentence but he is allowed to manufacture ballistic weapons.

Your country is ruined.

I'd like to think we care more about the content of what someone is saying rather than their grammar. The kid is in law school at UT. That law school is considered one of the top non-Ivy league schools. Perhaps you shouldn't question his intelligence blindly?

Always follow the money. The most interesting thing about this to me is the potential for disruption in what is now a unified front of pro-gun momentum.

The NRA essentially does the bidding of gun manufacturers. They're for protecting rights as far as those rights intersect with profits for those manufacturers. What happens when private citizens are allowed to bypass manufacturers and print their own weapons? I'm guessing that the vague generalities surrounding the "right to bear arms" will become a thing of the past, and the group will find restrictions on these printed weapons that they can live with -- in the spirit of cooperation with opponents, of course, and not because deep pockets are being threatened.

The interests of these gun manufacturers aligns more closely with our constitutional rights than the interests of anti-gun groups do. Change the constitution if you don't like our rights.

Did you check the previous Ars article? He's an avowed anarchist. Which is really nothing but the teensiest further step right from ayn rand libertarianism.

And boasting about how he doesn't go to class for Law School, and just passes his exams. Great. Anarchist lawyers that love cheating the system. I'm sure he won't contribute to anything like patent trolling or other positively lovely schemes, IF he doesn't go full on militia.

Concurred, this country is ruined.

Yes, I have followed the previous articles fairly closely and have found them entirely terrifying.

Do you find the millions of guns that are already in the US to be terrifying? Or the fact that I have 7 of my own, including an AR-15?

Also, who cares if he punt commas in the wrong place? Attack what he said, not his grammar. Attacking his grammar will add nothing to your argument and make you look like a troll.

But now the guy who is positioning himself as the main activist for gun manufacturing freedom has gone out to get multiple licenses and will be doing all the requisite BATFe paperwork. On the one hand, it changes nothing. On the other hand, he just joined about 61,000 other FFL holders, making him a lot less special.

Do you find the millions of guns that are already in the US to be terrifying? Or the fact that I have 7 of my own, including an AR-15?

The first part is terrifying, the second isn't if you are a responsible person. It is the crazies with guns that scare me, and I don't think for one second that all those millions of guns all belong to responsible people. And I'm not talking illegal firearms.

The problem here isn't the guns as such, but that it might allow people to make them easier. Not to mention that more people might get into building their own guns without really knowing what they are doing, which always is a bad thing.

Do you find the millions of guns that are already in the US to be terrifying? Or the fact that I have 7 of my own, including an AR-15?

The first part is terrifying, the second isn't if you are a responsible person. It is the crazies with guns that scare me, and I don't think for one second that all those millions of guns all belong to responsible people. And I'm not talking illegal firearms.

The problem here isn't the guns as such, but that it might allow people to make them easier. Not to mention that more people might get into building their own guns without really knowing what they are doing, which always is a bad thing.

True. But I don't think the problem is with the firearms. Crazy people will do stupid things, and as a country we need to find a better way to prevent that.